as the clock ticks down to the fiscal cliff, might lieutenant biden help avert disaster? sam, you talked to republican on the hill and there's a lot of back and forth about how good of a negotiator the president and his emissaries are. i've been wondering where joe biden is on this, given his experience on the hill and whether he might be a more effective ambassador in this back and forth that we are having. >> yeah. i think so. keep in mind, he and eric cantor had lengthy conversations when we were doing this in a different incarnation many months ago and so, you know, the framework was there between these two guys, not just that, between the respective staffs. the problem, if there was one with respect to biden, at least as i think, is that the -- if you do need an emissary on the hill for democrats, it's probably going to be with the house democratic caucus. by that i mean john boehner will at some point have to decide if he can get something done with all of his caucus or part of his caucus or house democrats. at that point you need nancy pelosi to get some of those l